242 
Report of the Select Committee on the Poor Laws. [Oct. 1- 
ment, in different degrees of detail, of 
the amount and expenditure of the 
poor rates in the years ending at Easter, 
1748, 1749, 1750, 1770, 1783. 1784, 
1785, 1803, and 1813, 1814,1815; your 
committee hare, therefore, included in 
their abstract so much of the account 
of those former years as can be compar¬ 
ed with the more recent accounts ; so 
that the house has now before it a state¬ 
ment of the amount of the poor rates 
at several periods, commencing in the 
middle of the last century, and reach¬ 
ing the year preceding the last. 
The first statement which your com¬ 
mittee submit to the house shows, in 
gross sums, the amount of monies as¬ 
sessed and levied in England and Wales 
at each former period, and in each year 
comprised in the late returns; and the 
amount expended upon the poor, and 
for other purposes, with other distinc¬ 
tions to be found in some of the returns. 
Your committee present to the house, 
in the second place, an account of the 
sums expended in each county for the 
relief of the poor only, in each of the 
eight years, endingon the 25th of March, 
1820, being the latest period for which 
there are the means of giving complete 
yearly accounts: of these eight years, 
the accounts of the first three are taken 
from the return of 1813, the others are 
from the returns referred to your com¬ 
mittee ; these they have combined in 
order that the eight years may be viewed 
together. 
Your committee have not thought it 
expedient to give the detailed account 
of each parish! The house having lately 
called for returns of the poor-rates for 
the year ending the 25th of March, 1821, 
it appears to your committee more con¬ 
venient that a parochial account, em¬ 
bracing nine years, should he prepared 
early in the next Session of Parliament, 
when the house will have theadditional 
advantage of an opportunity of consi¬ 
dering these returns in connexion with 
the result of the late enumeration of 
the people. 
They have at the same time the satis¬ 
faction of informing the house that all 
the paiochial returns and correct ab¬ 
stracts iu which each parish is distin¬ 
guished, are carefully arranged, so as 
to facilitate reference by any member 
of the house to the return of any parti¬ 
cular district. 
The committee lay before the house, 
thirdly, a statement in which the former 
returns, so far as they relate to the ex¬ 
penditure upon the poor only, are also 
distinguished by counties; and the 
eight latter years are averaged in three 
periods; the first of three years, ending 
in March, 1815, being the period which 
was under the consideration of the 
committee of 1817, and which reached 
to the first year of peace ; the second, 
embracing a like period of three years, 
ending in March, 1818; and the third, 
comprising only two years, to March, 
1820, which may be completed to a 
triennial period, when the returns re¬ 
cently ordered shall have been received. 
To this abstract, with the view of 
facilitating any comparisons which the 
members of the house may think it de¬ 
sirable to make, of the relative expen¬ 
diture of the poor-rates in each county, 
with its population, your committee 
have also annexed a table of the num¬ 
ber of people in each county, according 
to the enumeration taken iu 1SU. 
And they have brought from the ab¬ 
stract of 1815, the account of the pro¬ 
perty assessed in each county under 
schedule A. 
They have also thought it useful to 
annex an account of the average price of 
corn in England and Wales, in such of 
the years ending on the 25th of March, 
included in their abstracts, as have oc- 
cured since the establishment of the 
office of Receiver of coni returns. The 
accounts of these averages already be¬ 
fore the House are generally made up 
to a period of the year not correspond¬ 
ing with that of the poor-rate accounts ; 
and as comparisons are sometimes made 
between the amount of the poor rates 
and the price of wheat, they trust that 
this account of the prices may be ac¬ 
ceptable to the House. 
Your committee do not feel them¬ 
selves at liberty to make any observa¬ 
tions which are not suggested by the 
mere inspection of the several ab¬ 
stracts. 
These observations, they trust the 
House v^ill permit them to commence, 
by the statement of a few results drawn 
from the returns of the earlier periods, 
which have indeed been formerly stated 
to the House, but which it may be use¬ 
ful to place here: 
The pecuniary amount of the levies 
by way of poor s-rate progressively, and 
very largely increased from 1789 to 
1812: 
The amount of the sums applied to 
the relief of the poor, increased within 
the same period progressively, and very 
largely: 
The amount expended for other pur¬ 
poses 
